A FORMER pupil of paedophile teacher William Vahey has revealed how he let young boys drink alcohol on school trips and encouraged them to push their beds together at night.
RIGHT: Dana Dinnawi said Vahey had been popular. LEFT: William Vahey[DINNAWI/PH]Dana Dinnawi, 40, said friends who went on the trips described Vahey as acting “very creepy”.
One even told her how the predator molested him in a toilet on the pretext of helping him do up his tie.
Vahey, 64, who taught at the Southbank International School in London between 2009 and 2013, preyed on hundreds of children around the world during a 40-year career.
The American killed himself in a Minnesota motel last month after pornographic images of 90 boys, who had been drugged and abused, were found on a USB memory stick belonging to him. Police believe 60 of the victims were from the £25,000-a- year British school.
Ms Dinnawi was taught by the father-of-two in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s.
She said: “Everyone wanted to go on his trips because they were the most fun. I wanted to go on his Nepal trip but I did not get accepted.
“A friend said he acted in a very creepy way though and asked him and his friend to push their beds right up next to each other.
“His mother, who was also a teacher at the school, apparently knew that Mr Vahey let the boys drink when they were abroad on trips. She warned her son to stay away from him.”
Married Vahey taught at the Saudi Aramco Schools between 1980 and 1992. Pupils there left aged 14 to go to boarding schools around the world.
Mother-of-three Ms Dinnawi said: “One of my old classmates told me recently that Mr Vahey would help boys do up their ties and take them into the bathroom to use the mirror.
"As he was helping him adjust his tie, he placed his hand on my friend’s chest in a way that at the time made him feel uncomfortable but he never made anything of it.”
The accusation could add a dimension to Vahey’s abuse because so far the FBI has said that most of his victims appeared to be unconscious, probably plied with sleeping pills.
Ms Dinnawi, a holistic health coach in Toronto, Canada, said: “I am very angry that he betrayed our trust and our parents’ trust.
Our school, and our community in Dhahran is a very, special one, and he has tarnished that memory
"Our school, and our community in Dhahran is a very, special one, and he has tarnished that memory.”
Last night another pupil in Saudi Arabia claimed three of Vahey’s victims had killed themselves after being abused by him.
The American woman, taught by him when she was 12, gave her name only as Alysia.
She told Sky News: “There were three suicides of very popular students of his that were molested by him. I could not believe that this guy was still teaching.”
Vahey taught at 10 schools in nine different countries, beginning in 1972, despite having been jailed in 1969 for child molestation in California.
Pupils at the London school openly referred to him as “ the paedo”.
One boy, known only as Jonathan, has told how he was drugged and abused after the teacher helped him to bed when he felt dizzy on a school trip.
Vahey lived with his wife Jean, executive director of the European Council on International Schools, in Maida Vale, west London.
She remained in the capital when he took a post last year teaching history at the American Nicaraguan School in Managua, Nicaragua.
Yesterday it emerged that he tried to kill himself in the country four months ago.
The suicide bid came just days after his cleaner stole a USB stick and discovered the explicit images
When Vahey was confronted with the photographs, he admitted the abuse to US investigators, claiming he too had been molested as a boy.
It also emerged that parents of children at the Southbank International School are to have the opportunity to express their concerns to the police.
The school’s chair of governors, Sir Chris Woodhead, said there would be a meeting for parents tomorrow.
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